Hey, y'all. Finally, a revamped version of the iphone is out with 3G capabilities. People were lining up and sleeping on sidewalks as always. Apart from the 3G functions there is also improved battery time and other small corrections. Just like the old psp and the new slim lite edition. Ani ipone users in the house ? Tell us why you like your iphone and the cool things you do with apart from the obvious effizie.

Nothing much to the new 3G version jarreee.But for the cheaper value($600 for the 16GB value) , firmware and battery upgrades; i think its worth it. Anyway i dont really like apple iPhone cos its used in better enviroments where you virtually have high speed internet on the GO.

But i begin to ask my self how would they have made a phone like that without 3G in the first place?

Is 3G somewhat of a special feature?

@femzy

yes, 3g is a special feature. it was not in the first iphone because the 1st gen iphone was essentially early-adopter technology hence its high price.
3g radio and gps would have added to the price and bulk, not to mention zapping precious battery power.

now that technical expertise is honed and production costs have droped (it costs like $175 to build one now) apple can afford to revamp the phone with 3g and gps radios embedded and still sell at $199. and still achive high battery charge levels.

look, every manufacturer can cram the latest gizmo in their gadgets, but note that every extra component costs money and adds to the cost which is then transferred to you, the end user. do you think many people could afford to pay $5000 for a phone that has gps, hsdpa, 8megapixel cam, xenon flashlight, accelerometer, infrared, carl-zeiss optics, 80gig memory, 3D chips, DNA decoder etc etc?

be sensible.

do you think the manufacturers own and invented every single component? NO! they pay royalties for hardware and software they didnt invent or hold patents to as used in the phone. for instance i beleive qualcomm owns the patent to most 3g chips so they get paid royalty.

it makes sense for companies to slim down their devices feature-wise as most cost effective as possible to make a profit. consider games consoles: ps3 and xbox360 cost more than their selling price to build so the manufacturers have to sell them at a loss and hope to recoup their investment from royalty imposed on the software sold for the machines. the wii cut down lots of snazzy features to sell dirt cheap. xbox360 arcade doesnt come with HDD or hdmi port, cheaper ps3 do away with features found on the costlier versions.

a typical gaming pc costs over 10 times the price of a ps3.

besides, that was apple's first foray into the cellphone biz.

in summary, too many tech gear make the gear too expensive unless economies of scale come into focus.

oh, and you got the price wrong:

the 16gig 3g is $299, whiole the 8gig 3g is $199

in the begining i wanted to get a nokia N810 cus it was just what i needed, it was LInux based, runs on Debian, ,and has a cool interface , plus it was open and free , with the backing of thousand of developers , also comes with pidgin., a mobile terminal , where i can ssh and sudo apt-get all i want , plus a cool package manager , but then i couldnt find one in this country , so i settled for an ipod touch , and tell u what , am quite impressed , am not one for the fancy , music stuff (i dont even have a single video on mine) i hardly listen to music on it , but after jail breaking it , i was open to a world of possibilities, i installed bsd subsystem, then openssh, then a mobile terminal , complete with bash , then an irc clients, a yahoo clients , an rss client, and some other cool stuff which would allow me ton get my geek on anywhere any time , added to the fact that am can sync wirelessly with amarok on ubuntu , life has not been sweater , the itouch/iphone is an example of how far mahn has gone with computer , if only it can be opened up so that it can attain its real potentials,

amen, brovar

@ bigrovar

Could you please shed a little more light on the "jailbreaking" of a thing and where can one get an iphone or order one from yankee in naija ? What kinds of fun programs do you run on your ipod touch that can convince me to get one ? Also, i heard that most iphones are locked to a particular carrier like AT&T and you have to unlock it in order to put in any other sim thereby voiding the warranty. Also, i heard that there are some firmware that you can use to make the iphone do much more. Don't you think that with networks like glo and mtn rolling out 3G that nigeria is ready for the iphone instead of all this blackberry shit. Holla back.

@samir101ng

although your questiion was directed at bigbrovar, let me attempt to assist.

jailbreaking is an unauthorized opening up of the iphone/ipod touch filesystem in order to allow the installation of community (i.e non-apple) native (i.e non web-based) applications and modifications. the filesystem by default is locked down, thus "jailbreaking" means setting it free. its this process that allows the installation of Installer and applications. jailbreaking usually utilizes a known bug in the firmware: the TIFF buffer overflow.( there are other loopholes as well)

however subsequent firmware updates re-lock the filesystem, and it became a cat-and-mouse game between Apple and hackers.

as of recent, the new 2.0 firmware cannot be jailbroken-YET. but its a question of time, as already there are claims by some that it has been both unlocked and jailbroken.


iphone is available in a number of good phone dealers in Naija, and most of them are unlocked and jailbroken already. just look around.

as for fun programs, it depends on your taste: Installer and Cydia (a rival app) are full of community created applications that stemmed from reverse engineering genuine iphone apps. there are IM clients, a few underpowered games, dictionaries, Quran, Bible, blogging apps, themes, customizing apps, utilities etc. some are good, others are dreadful. but almost all are free and quite easy to install (via WiFi or gprs).

however the new 2.0 firmware introduces the APP Store where you can download OFFICIAL, Apple-vetted apps and games. because they are official, they are stable and quite good but not all are free. currently only about 25% of the appstore goodies are free and you need an Itunes store account to get them. for the itunes acount setup you need a valid major credit card or a paypal account.

its true that most iphones are locked to one official carrier in the country supported (in the US its AT&T), meaning you can't use any other sim but the one in the phone package and the data plans. if you want pay-as-you-go and other carriers you will have to have your phone unlocked to use any sim.

if you don't need the phone aspect but want the overall iphone coolness, get an Ipod touch. however, whereas firmware updates are free on the iphone, they cost over $10 on the ipod.

nigeria may have 3G, or some semblance of it, but our networks do not have  comprehensive data plans to cover the iphone usage, and they didnt actively seek for endorsement from Apple. you know, nigeria's reputation doesnt really sit well with foreign bodies.

nonetheless, that is not to say your unlocked 3G iphone wont work on Naija's 3G networks.


UPDATE: 2.0 is indeed jailbroken and unlocked. however there is as yet no software unlock for the 3G iphone, just jailbreak. meanwhile firmware 2.0.1 is out while 2.1 is being prepared for release soon.

For all you iPhone users,
what do you like most about it?
What do you hate most about it?
What do you wish it had?
How well does it work with Naija networks?
Have you seen the Chinese knockoff, the hiphone? Any experience with it?

we are waiting 4 replies!!!

Signal gripes mount over new iPhone

By Kevin Allison in San Francisco

Published: August 17 2008 19:52 | Last updated: August 17 2008 19:52

The ranks of unhappy iPhone users continued to swell at the weekend as Apple customers complained about problems maintaining a signal on the company’s new 3G handset.

Over the past few weeks, customers have flocked to Apple’s online support forums to complain about weak or fluctuating signals leading to dropped calls and long download times.

“I have had my iPhone since this past Sunday,” wrote one iPhone customer on an Apple support forum last week.

“The reception issues began immediately with 3G flip-flopping between ‘no signal’ and up to four bars – but usually hovering between none and two.”

Not all iPhone users are reporting problems but a growing number of anecdotal reports from around the world indicates that the phenomenon may be widespread.

Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the problem, compounding the frustration for some users.

“It amazes me how widespread this problem obviously is, and how little AT&T, and especially Apple, has done in acknowledging and addressing this issue,” said another user on an Apple forum.

Speculation about the cause of the poor reception thus far has centred on the iPhone’s Infineon chipset.

“We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier,” wrote Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura.

“This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users,” he said.

“Some people will not experience these problems as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows.”

If Mr Windsor is correct, that means Apple may not be able to fix the problem with a simple software update.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on a fix for the problem. Apple and AT&T both declined to comment. Infineon did not return calls.

Apple claimed that it sold more than 1m 3G iPhones in the first three days after the much-hyped mobile handset launched last month.

It has set a goal of selling 10m iPhones, including its older first-generation model, by the end of this year.

Queues at Apple’s downtown San Francisco Apple store have regularly stretched outside the door since, indicating brisk sales.

The problems with 3G iPhone reception come on the heels of the botched launch of MobileMe, a re-vamped version of Apple’s subscription service, which allows users to store files, check e-mail and upload photos online.

Customers reported problems accessing that service after its launch last month.

See the continous wahala people are subjecting themselves to